The Wise Sage

While I was driving to work this afternoon, I heard a good illustration from the radio talk show by a lady in the radio station.

There was this couple who has been arguing and quarrelling until they decided to seek advice from one Chinese Sage. The husband went first and told his side of the story to the Sage and emphasizing that he was right and the wife was wrong. After listening, the Sage finally said, "You are right!".

The next day, it was the wife's turn. She told her side of the story and of course telling the Sage that she was right and the husband was wrong. At the end, the Sage too said, "You are right!".

When she went back and discussed the outcome of their consultation, they were surprised to discover that the Sage told each the same answer : "You are right!".

They decided to confront the Sage and said, "How can it be possible that each one of us is right at the same time. There must be one of us who is in the wrong. The Sage said, "You are right!".

I think that this is a good story for premarital counselling.

PM lost his Beloved Wife

Our PM's wife Endon passed away unexpectedly on 20 Oct 2005. Most Malaysians thought that she was on her way to recovery after her recent treatment in USA. Somehow, her relapse of breast cancer was worse than most of us thought.

The perception of most Malaysians towards Badawi and Endon was that they were very loving couple. It was said that whenever the PM went to work every morning, he would give the wife a peck on the cheek or yell to the wife if she was upstairs telling her that he was leaving for work. Truly a loving couple! A good leadership by example as far as demonstration of a loving couple was concerned.

After she was buried, he went to her grave everyday non-stop for three days. I was a bit worried that he would be too distraught or heart-broken to continue ruling the nation. I remember one Israelite PM by the name of Menachem Begin who totally lost the will to rule and to live after the wife died. In fact, he died not long after the wife passed away. Hopefully, Abdullah could survive this crisis and persevere on.

Talking about cancer, I remember this friend of mine who is in his early 40's who told me around late July this year of his persistent discomfort in his stomach. At that time, he also told me of the lady who had her stomach removed because of cancer. She didn't survived long and passed away in August. I blogged about her story in my August 6 blog (Read here). Then two week ago, I heard from my sister that another friend of mine had just got his colon removed because of colon cancer. That was shocking news. It did come to him as a great shock. The wife is now expecting their 2nd child. They have 2 more kids with the older one only aged 4.

This cancer thing has caused untold sorrow and distress to many many families. In this case, I offer my prayer that God would be merciful to him and his family and that he would prevail over this predicament.

David & Goliath

This afternoon, my cousin from Kota Belud came to my office to deliver a giant ostrich egg to me. He had earlier known that I have an interest to acquire an ostrich egg. He took the trouble to go to the Kota Belud Ostrich Farm to get this egg for me. What a nice cousin!

Just look at the sheer size! I was told that an ostrich egg is equivalent to 30 chicken eggs! A case of Goliath v David.

Now, we are left with the dilemma of what to do with this giant egg. Imagine you crack one is like cracking 30 chicken eggs. Probably, we will have an ostrich egg bonanza. A cake made with ostrich egg; scrambled ostrich egg; omelette ostrich egg: custard ostrich egg..... and the list is still being added on.

In fact, I was thinking of waiting for Paul to come back and join us to feast this ostrich egg bonaza. My cousin however said that the egg may not be able to wait that long. Too bad Paul!

The other thing I have to worry now is how to get the content out and yet keep the giant shell intact. My cousin told me to chisel a little hole at one end. That might not be easy for a first timer. Well, we will keep you informed after the feast.